Hello everyone.
I'm a non-EU, and my fiancé is Finnish. We would like to know what kind of visa do I need in order to get married in Finland? Is it an "engagement visa", or do I just need a touristic Visa?

Marriage

Thank you so much for the reply
WELL, our case doesn't really apply to those :p I could apply for a schengen visa to simply visit my fiancé, but I'm not sure if we can get married on that visa.. That's the problem :/
Even applying for a residence permit from my country requires us to be married already. :/

Flossy1978 wrote:
You can come to Finland on a tourist visa, get married and apply for a resident permit. It may or may not work. It is frowned upon. But some people get their permit this way.

The reason it is frowned upon is that the basis of the visa is that you do not intend to stay, but that you leave after 3 months at the latest. People from more 'difficult' countries often have to prove that they have property, a job, or in general 'a life' in their home country that they will return to. So if you come on tourist a visa with the plan to get married you already lied to the Finnish state. Migri might still give you the residence permit, or might decide that you are a suspici case and make things difficult for you. (some other EU countries are much stricter with the marry-on-a-tourist-visa thing, some deport you when they hear you plan to marry, heard stories of immigration police picking up the bride/groom right after the wedding.)

If you can't get married in your own country, would it be possible to marry in a third country?

I'm a Finnish citizen and married my wife here in Finland when she was visiting on tourist visa. But then again, she visited me a few times in Finland, and I visited her in Ukraine. Those stamps on passports may give a proof that things were serious and not like some retarded online love. That crap looks nice in romantic novels. Anyhow:
1. You need a certificate of non impediment from your embassy here in Finland. If you apply for this in your home country then preferably it should be attested by some trusted authorities. Contact Finnish embassy for this requirement.
2. If you apply for residence permit here in Finland then it depends upon various factors.
a). If your fiancé was a "serial monogamist" by foreign lady/ladies aka they came here and got divorced after a few years. This information shows up in extract from local population register and tends to raise some alarms among relevant authorities.
b). If you country is "reliable" enough. Say Ghana or Nigeria has lesser reputation than Russia or Belarus or Ukraine. This effects the processing time.
c). If you are reliable enough.
d). If your dude is reliable enough.

Side note: Be honest with the purpose of your marriage. Your data is saved electronically, and during preliminary investigations if they find out that you lied earlier then it will raise a dozen of eyebrows.

Well, our situation is a little bit hard. :/
We have already applied for a schengen visa, two months ago, on the terms of friendship, (because we were afraid that the embassy doesn't accept it since we have never met before), but they still refused it, on the notice they gave to me, the reasons for refusal were the following:
a.) Justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not provided.
b.) Your intention to leave the territory of the member states before the expiry of the Visa could not be ascertained.
We have already thought about meeting in my country, but it happens to be a Muslim one, and it's kind of a real taboo for a native girl to hang out with a foreign guy, and we cannot stay together in an apartment or even a hotel if we are not married (they require a marriage certificate). So, that's why we wouldn't risk meeting here BEFORE getting married.
SO, we decided to meet in somewhere else (Turkey, because travelling there doesn't require me to get a visa).
Now after that we have met, and got engaged, we don't know what it the rightest way to proceed.
We are afraid that if we apply for a schengen visa in order to get married would look weird to them, since the last visa was on the means of Friendship (it's only because visiting him in Finland is HARD because of the embassy, and visiting me here is hard because of the Muslim society/laws)
Would it be better if we just apply for a simple visa for a simple visit at first?

Last edited by Peach7 on Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Peach7 wrote:
Would it be better if we just apply for a simple visa for a simple visit at first?

A) You can get married here on any kind of visa (you could get married without visa, if you can get here, the magistrate office won't care)
B) If the embassy is suspicious that you plan to stay here after expiration of your visa, then it probably does not matter what kind of visa you're applying. You won't get one anyway.

and we cannot stay together in an apartment or even a hotel if we are not married (they require a marriage certificate). So, that's why we wouldn't risk meeting here BEFORE getting married.

Ok, not before - but if you have now decided to get married, can you not do that there?

Swissguy wrote:Tbh it also looks quite weird to me. If that should/could be real love, why the hell would you want to marry already and not go at it like two adults? Oh right, theres the citizenship waiting for u...

I'm sorry, but you can't judge our love/intentions/adultery when you don't even know anything about us and our relationship.

Swissguy wrote:Tbh it also looks quite weird to me. If that should/could be real love, why the hell would you want to marry already and not go at it like two adults? Oh right, theres the citizenship waiting for u...

I'm sorry, but you can't judge our love/intentions/adultery when you don't even know anything about us and our relationship.

Indeed, but if the people deciding on your visa get the same feeling, you are in deep trouble.

Peach7 wrote:Well, our situation is a little bit hard. :/
We have already applied for a schengen visa, two months ago, on the terms of friendship, (because we were afraid that the embassy doesn't accept it since we have never met before), but they still refused it, on the notice they gave to me, the reasons for refusal were the following:
a.) Justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not provided.
b.) Your intention to leave the territory of the member states before the expiry of the Visa could not be ascertained.
We have already thought about meeting in my country, but it happens to be a Muslim one, and it's kind of a real taboo for a native girl to hang out with a foreign guy, and we cannot stay together in an apartment or even a hotel if we are not married (they require a marriage certificate). So, that's why we wouldn't risk meeting here BEFORE getting married.
SO, we decided to meet in somewhere else (Turkey, because travelling there doesn't require me to get a visa).
Now after that we have met, and got engaged, we don't know what it the rightest way to proceed.
We are afraid that if we apply for a schengen visa in order to get married would look weird to them, since the last visa was on the means of Friendship (it's only because visiting him in Finland is HARD because of the embassy, and visiting me here is hard because of the Muslim society/laws)
Would it be better if we just apply for a simple visa for a simple visit at first?

Most likely the embassy used the local cultural values to ascertain your relationship, and hence the refusal.
Sure, you may apply for tourist visa and this may have different set of requirements. And forum members really can't say for sure if it will work or not. The previous refusal may have its own mojo on your application as well.

Peach7 wrote:
We thought about that option, but here in order to get married he is obliged to convert to Islam (and take "a test to test if he truly has become a Muslim or not") which is out of the question

You can get married in any country that both of you have visa free access to. Presumably there exists a country that does not require conversion to Islam.

You might get a tourist visa (although there are already some bumbs in the road). But using your tourist visa to marry a guy you've hardly met, creates a big red flag on the way to a residence permit.
The most secure route is; tourist visa, marry and then live for several years together in your home country. (or anywhere else). After that a residence permit will likely be granted.